Tiny home on wheels gives hope to Hope in Provincetown

Thursday

Dec 14, 2017 at 10:24 AMDec 14, 2017 at 10:24 AM

Katy Ward

PROVINCETOWN — Dana Hope is tired of working herself to the bone to pay someone else’s mortgage. She’s tired of working three jobs, 75 to 80 hours a week, and she’s tired of moving every time a landlord hikes the rent. Which is why Hope is pushing the town to move in the direction of tiny homes.

“I don’t make a lot of money,” Hope said Tuesday. “When I first moved here about 11 years ago there were winter rentals available that were affordable. But now it seems everything is $2,000 or more per month and that doesn’t include all the other fees associated with renting. [Property] owners have us over a barrel because there’s no affordable places for us to go.”

In October, Hope went on eBay and found a tiny home on wheels for $16,000.

“I had been looking into tiny homes for several years,” Hope said. “One day I decided to go for it. It was difficult to get a loan for a tiny home because there are no laws in place right now, [so] instead I took out a personal loan, had it delivered [from Ohio] to Provincetown and gutted the entire thing.”

The tiny home that Hope purchased has 200 square feet and is currently parked at the Jerome Smith parking lot. She is not allowed to live in it because of town zoning regulations. The house is made of pine and cedar and has a copper roof and a small deck. It has six inches of insulation and a small wood-burning fireplace. It also has a composting toilet, rain catchers, solar electricity and bamboo floors.

“The home was livable when it arrived, but I wanted to make it completely sustainable and off the grid,” Hope said. “I want it to be as environmentally friendly as possible.”

The entire project is costing Hope about $26,000, which includes the purchase, delivery, materials and labor.

“At first I got a little scared when I started looking into the cost of bamboo floors — it’s expensive,” Hope said. “But then I realized I only need enough to cover 200 square feet.”

Hope said she thinks tiny homes could put a massive dent in the affordable housing crisis in town. She thinks it would allow single people, couples and year-round workers to not only have a chance at homeownership but also allow them to potentially save money and not live paycheck to paycheck.

“There’s some sense of pride in ownership that will improve a person’s sense of well-being,” Hope said. “You don’t have to ask a landlord for permission to have people over or to have pets. You don’t have to couch surf. You don’t have to get a second or third job because rent keeps going up and you won’t be scared to come home to a for-sale sign in your front yard.”

But putting tiny homes in Provincetown will not happen overnight.

“There’s no definition for tiny houses,” Town Manager David Panagore said on Friday. “Right now it can be viewed as anything. Some people consider 300 to 400 square feet as a tiny home, but we also have condos in town that size. It will relate to if the home is on wheels, what’s the foundation, the efficiency of the used space, health laws and what zoning would allow. … There’s no silver bullet here.”

Hope said she thinks anything under 600 square feet should qualify as a tiny home, but agreed the definition is vague. And as for where tiny homes could go, Hope has a few ideas.

“My first thought is to use property owners and second-home owners in town who want to be part of the housing emergency,” Hope said. “Maybe they would let us use part of their land for a small fee or an exchange of services.”

For example, Hope said, there are some elderly people in town who are not ready to move to Seashore Point and would benefit from having someone live on a corner of their land in exchange for companionship and caretaking. She also thinks second-home owners could benefit by using tiny-home owners as property managers during the off-season.

“Tiny homes are all about affordability,” Hope said. “For me, I work at a nonprofit so I’m never getting rich. I can’t afford to buy land, but I can park in someone’s yard and exchange my services.”

The other option under consideration would be to use a parcel of land such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars site on Jerome Smith Road to accommodate several tiny homes.

“The VFW is a very viable spot,” Hope said. “It has easy access, it’s town-owned property and it’s not in a high density area. Seems like a good spot to do a tiny home prototype. You could probably fit about 20 homes in that area.”

Panagore said the first step in solving this puzzle is to bring it before the board of selectmen and start a discussion.

“Let’s get started,” Selectmen Chair Cheryl Andrews said on Monday. “Let’s [at least] bite off a tiny bit, no pun intended.” The board agreed to revisit the topic of tiny homes at a future meeting.

Hope has faith that people will jump on board for tiny homes.

“People romanticize about life here,” Hope said. “People want to live in a small cottage, as a starving artist, burning wood to keep warm and living simply. I think it will create value for year-rounders and make us feel important and necessary. It’s not all about money. It would be nice to see tiny homes expand across the Cape, but Provincetown could be the trendsetter.”